Ante Meridiem
by pomegranate-stars
Summary: Alex is awoken at two in the morning to attend to a medical emergency. Slight Alex/Tina, but nothing too heavy.


**Hello, everyone! This is just meant to be a little piece partially inspired by a DeviantArt picture I remember seeing a while back. I haven't written for a while, and wanted to do something to get myself back in the swing of things. I hope you enjoy! :)  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon, or the DeviantArt picture I used as inspiration.**

**Dedication: This is dedicated to my sister Miranda, because Alex was her first Harvest Moon love and she's married all the doctors ever since.  
**

* * *

Two AM

"Please, _please_, Martha, you have to wake him up and tell him to come right away! It's urgent!"

Alex was awoken without warning by the hysterical words spilling from the front room. He glanced at the clock—Two AM. He groaned and pulled himself out of bed, grabbing his lab coat and travel medical bag as he made his way into the front waiting room of the small clinic. There were times he enjoyed being the only doctor of the small Flower Bud Village. This was not one of those times.

Standing in the doorway were two figures—his grandmother, in a nightcap and gown, and the young rancher, Tina. Tina was wringing her hands, her farmer clothes wrinkled and her hair falling out of their usually pristine pigtails. She suddenly spotted him.

"Alex! Doctor, please, you have to come to my house right away! She'll die if you don't! I've been trying as hard as I can, but nothing seems to be working!" She scooted past Martha and ran to him, desperation gleaming in her eyes.

Alex, still half asleep, could only nod. Tina's face lit up. "Oh, thank you, Alex! Thank you thank you thank you!" She grabbed his hand and tugged him after her. "This way!"

Alex followed, half stumbling, half running after Tina. He only had time to give Martha a semi-coherent wave before they were out the door and down the worn brown pathway.

It was dark, but that didn't seem to bother Tina. She wound her way through the trees with practice ease, heading for the River District, where her house sat proudly on the banks of the slithering river. However, instead of pulling him into her house, as he expected, she wound her way downwards over the bridge and through the trees, past the Carpenter's and Liz's farm and into a small squat brown building on the ocean front property.

Inside was dim except for a single lantern. Several white birds lined the walls, sleeping soundly except for one. One lone solitary chicken sat in a pathetic crumpled slump in the center of the coop. Alex didn't have to be a doctor to know that this chicken was on its last hurrah as far as chickens go.

He turned and raised an eyebrow at the distraught farmer. The flickering lantern in the corner cast shadows over Tina's pretty face, causing her to look rather demonic in the failing light.

"C-Can…" Tina took a deep breath. "Can you… help Emily?"

Alex looked back at the patient. "Tina, it's a chicken." He said plainly. Although, he didn't know what else he'd quite expected. Even though it was well into Tina's second year in Flower Bud Village, the chipper girl had remained unmarried. No husband, and no child.

"Yes, Alex, I know it's a chicken!" Tina snapped. Her eyes didn't leave the quivering white bird. "Emily happens to be the first chicken I ever got…. The first animal I bought with my own money after moving here." She turned her large round eyes on Alex and grasped his sleeve with one hand. "Please, Alex. You're the only person I could think of to help!"

Alex glanced down at her for a brief moment. She really was actually quite lovely. Suddenly, he realized he was staring and, clearing his throat, he crossed to the chicken. As he pulled a stethoscope from his lab coat pocket, he was acutely aware of Tina's presence behind him. He could hear every shaking breath she took.

He swallowed. "Tina, why didn't you just ask Ellen to help you? Or Blue? They have much more experience with animal diseases…I'm happy to help you, but I'm no veterinarian."

He felt, rather than saw, Tina frown. "Oh… I guess… I don't know, I just thought of you. You're always going out of your way to offer me advice about how to stay healthy, and… well… I don't know." Tina's voice trailed off. He glanced at her over his shoulder and was surprised to see a thin blush coating her cheeks.

Alex replaced the stethoscope and lifted the chicken up off of the floor. The chicken must have felt awful, because Emily didn't even attempt a squawk of protest when he felt beneath her wing muscles. Finally, Alex replaced the chicken on the floor and sighed.

Tina was crouched on the floor next to him in an instant. "What?" She hissed. "What is it? Will she be ok? She's not going to… Oh, Goddess, Emily!"

Seeing the tears begin to well up in the young rancher's eyes, Alex quickly set her mind at ease. "She just has a cold, Tina. Did you leave her outside for too long in the rain?"

Tina's eyes grew wide. "No, but… She likes to splash around by the ocean sometimes."

Alex nodded. "That would do it." Now that the crisis was somewhat averted, he could feel his eyes growing heavy again. It must be nearly three in the morning by now. Outside, it was still quite dark. "Do—" His sentence was interrupted by a yawn. "Excuse me… do you have any of Hank's animal medicine? Give Emily a dosage of that and she should be fine."

Tina thought for a moment. "Oh!" She leaped up and fled the chicken coop. Alex yawned again and sat down hard in the scattered straw around the sick chicken. A few minutes passed and Tina was back, clutching a blue bottle to her chest. She gave Emily a dosage of the medicine and, with a gentle kindness not uncommon to the perky farm girl, lifted the chicken and placed it on its perch between two other contently slumbering chickens.

She turned back to find Alex still sitting in the straw, nodding off. "Oh, Alex!" She whispered, with a smile. She gripped the doctor by the crook of the arm and tugged him to his feet. "Come on." She whispered. "Let's get you home."

Alex shook his head. "Sorry." He mumbled, trying to force himself to wake up.

Tina shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. If I'd known it was such a simple fix, I would have waited until the morning."

Alex shook himself awake. "No. It was my pleasure to help you, Tina." He smiled.

Tina looked as though she was wrestling with something. Suddenly, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him briefly on the cheek. "Thank you, Alex. Really, you don't know how much I appreciate you coming."

Alex touched his cheek, eyes wide. "N-No problem."

* * *

Martha looked up from the novel she was reading as the door to the clinic chimed. Her grandson slipped back inside the darkened front room, not looking quite as exhausted as he had when he'd stumbled out a few hours earlier.

"How did it go?" She asked, putting aside the book and raising an eyebrow at Alex's queer expression.

The dark haired doctor shook his head. "Crisis averted." He said simply, hanging up his lab coat. "It wasn't a problem."

He glanced out the window to where the sun was just making its first appearance, peeping over the horizon and filling the sky with a soft pink light. He smiled, feeling the prospects of a new day wash over him.

"Wasn't a problem at all."

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**Please leave me a review, and thanks for reading!**

**xoxo**

**Allie  
**


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